News Broadcasting
ESS’ ‘Shahz and Wahz Show’ enters TAM Top 100
MUMBAI: One of the innovations that ESPN Star Sports did for its recent coverage of the India Australia test series was The Shahz And Wahz Show. Aired every day at tea time, the show saw Ravi Shastri and the latest addition to the broadcaster’s ‘A Few Good Men’ team Wasim Akram host their own show.
The combination has worked. TAM data for the period 28 December 2003 – 3 January 2004 for all cable and satellite homes 4+, shows that the special enters at number 68 with a rating of 2.9.
One of the show’s innovations was allowing viewers to vote through SMS. The broadcaster would pick out three girls from the ground everyday and the audience had to decide whom they wanted to see appear on the show.
Despite the fact that India was playing the decider that week ESS couldn’t make a dent into Star Plus’ domination. The highest spot the match occupied was at number 33 with a TVR of 4.4. There is not one show from Zee in the top 100. SET enters the charts courtesy Jassi.. at number 45 with a TVR of 3.4.
News Broadcasting
News TV viewership jumps 33 per cent as West Asia war draws audiences
BARC Week 8 data shows news share rising to 8 per cent despite T20 World Cup
NEW DELHI:Â Even as individual television news channel ratings remain under a temporary pause, the genre itself is seeing a clear surge in audience attention.
According to the latest data from Broadcast Audience Research Council India, television news recorded a 33 per cent jump in genre share in Week 8 of 2026, covering February 28 to March 6.
The news genre accounted for 8 per cent of total television viewership during the week, up from 6 per cent the previous week. The spike in attention coincided with escalating geopolitical tensions involving the United States, Israel and Iran, which have kept global headlines firmly fixed on West Asia.
The rise is notable because it came at a time when cricket was dominating television screens. The high-stakes stages of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, including the Super 8 fixtures and semi-finals, were being broadcast during the same period.
Despite the cricket frenzy, viewers appeared to be toggling between sport and global affairs, boosting the overall share of news programming.
The surge in genre share comes even as the government has enforced a one-month pause on publishing ratings for individual news channels. The move followed regulatory scrutiny of the television ratings ecosystem.
While channel-level rankings remain temporarily out of sight, the genre-level data suggests that when global tensions escalate, audiences continue to turn to television news for real-time updates.
